HostingHacks.net | Tools to Build a Linux Webhosting Service

From this point on most of the commands can be run from a Putty window in a "cut-and-paste" style layout or copied to a script. Notes on Putty best practices can be found here.

If you didn't do so during the installation configure networking now:

netconfig

Enter an ip address and then exit 'netconfig'. The main thing here is to get Slackware to recognize your ethernet drivers.

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 stop
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 start

At this point you should be able to log in remotely through a secure shell to finish networking and finalize the installation. (see http://hostinghacks.net/putty/ for details on issuing commands remotely).

configure ethø :

cat > /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf << "EOF"
#
# This file contains the configuration settings for network interfaces.
# If USE_DHCP[interface] is set to "yes", this overrides any other settings.
# If you don't have an interface, leave the settings null ("").

# Config information for eth0:
IPADDR[0]="192.168.0.10"
NETMASK[0]="255.255.255.0"
USE_DHCP[0]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[0]=""

# Config information for eth1:
IPADDR[1]=""
NETMASK[1]=""
USE_DHCP[1]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[1]=""

# Config information for eth2:
IPADDR[2]=""
NETMASK[2]=""
USE_DHCP[2]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[2]=""

# Config information for eth3:
IPADDR[3]=""
NETMASK[3]=""
USE_DHCP[3]=""
DHCP_HOSTNAME[3]=""

# Default gateway IP address:
GATEWAY="192.168.0.1"

# Change this to "yes" for debugging output to stdout.  Unfortunately,
# /sbin/hotplug seems to disable stdout so you'll only see debugging output
# when rc.inet1 is called directly.
DEBUG_ETH_UP="no"
EOF

hostname:

cat > /etc/HOSTNAME << "EOF"
serv1.fatpenguinhosting.com
EOF

chmod 644 /etc/HOSTNAME

To check to make sure the fqdn is set correctly use: `hostname --fqdn`

edit /etc/hosts:

cat > /etc/hosts << "EOF"
127.0.0.1        localhost
192.168.0.10     serv1.fatpenguinhosting.com serv1
192.168.0.10     fatpenguinhosting.com
192.168.0.5      xp-test-box

EOF

chmod 644 /etc/hosts

Configure internal or external resolvers. The choice here is whether you want your own server sending queries out on its own (bind has to be configured correctly) ; or you have other servers (provided by yourself or your ISP) that have agreed to do the job:

# option 1: external resolvers

cat > /etc/resolv.conf << "EOF"
nameserver 111.112.113.114
nameserver 111.112.113.115
EOF

# option 2: internal resolvers

cat > /etc/resolv.conf << "EOF"
nameserver 127.0.0.1

EOF

# option 3: combination
cat > /etc/resolv.conf << "EOF"
nameserver 127.0.0.1
nameserver 111.112.113.114
nameserver 111.112.113.115
EOF

A combination (option #3) which first checks to see if bind is enabled locally and then if not will go out to other specified servers is also possible. The: search fatpenguinhosting.com option often found in a default resolv.conf file has no real value for a Hosting Service Provider except to cause unnecessary lookups.

Using a localhost resolver presents a small security risk if you have a system where users can affect the DNS server ( e.g. any control panel where users have the ability to add domains). It's a risk to use the local resolver because there are cases where a user could create a domain that isn't really controlled by them, and then redirect traffic because you are using the local server's DNS for queries.

For example: say that a domain hosted on your server utilizes a payment gateway "paygate.usa" for an ecommerce site. The server could be tricked into delivering the payment information by a user that added a bogus "paygate.usa" with a faked ip address to the system. However, most control panels only allow set ranges of ip addresses to be used during domain creation and payment transfers should be encrypted anyway so there are multiple layers that would have to be overcome to make a forged domain usable.

- set the timezone and syncronize the system time ; use ls /usr/share/zoneinfo to find your correct setting:

cat > /etc/hardwareclock << "EOF"
# run timeconfig to edit this file.
UTC
EOF

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific /etc/localtime

ntpdate 128.100.100.128

- Finalize the lilo boot loader configuration to make all disks bootable from the mbr ; in case of a disk failure each disk in the system is able to be placed as the first bootable disk:

cat > /etc/lilo.conf << "EOF"
boot = /dev/md0
raid-extra-boot = mbr
prompt
timeout = 50
vga = normal
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/md0
  label = Linux
  read-only
EOF

lilo -x mbr -b /dev/md0
# -x applies raid-extra-boot option

- keep a copy of '/etc/raidtab' handy if you prefer to use 'raidtools' rather than 'mdadm':

mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
cp /mnt/floppy/raidtab /etc/raidtab
umount /dev/fd0

make a boot floppy:

makebootfloppy

Edit root cronjobs to taste ; cron should already be set as follows:

cat > /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root << "EOF"

# Run hourly cron jobs at 47 minutes after the hour:
47 * * * * /usr/bin/run-parts /etc/cron.hourly 1> /dev/null
#
# Run daily cron jobs at 4:40 every day:
40 4 * * * /usr/bin/run-parts /etc/cron.daily 1> /dev/null
#
# Run weekly cron jobs at 4:30 on the first day of the week:
30 4 * * 0 /usr/bin/run-parts /etc/cron.weekly 1> /dev/null
#
# Run monthly cron jobs at 4:20 on the first day of the month:
20 4 1 * * /usr/bin/run-parts /etc/cron.monthly 1> /dev/null
EOF
killall crond
/usr/sbin/crond -l10

add a user to collect system logs and alerts :

groupadd servadmin
mkdir -p /home/servadmin
useradd -s /bin/false -d /home/servadmin -g servadmin -c "server admin" servadmin -M
chown servadmin /home/servadmin -R
passwd servadmin

To check to make sure the fqdn is set correctly use: hostname --fqdn

To check to make sure the fqdn is set correctly use: `hostname --fqdn`